


all of it.

by inlovewithimpossibility



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Missing Scene, Post-Episode: s07e16 Star City 2040, Support
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:07:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25107463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inlovewithimpossibility/pseuds/inlovewithimpossibility
Summary: Connor finds Mia after 7x16 and they air a few of their issues.[pre-crisis world canon-compliant missing scene set post-7x16]
Relationships: Connor Hawke/Mia Smoak
Comments: 12
Kudos: 43





	all of it.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [brittanyedison](https://archiveofourown.org/users/brittanyedison/gifts).



> The happiest of birthdays to Miss Maya, I hope you have the most incredible day!! Thank you for being such a positive and sweet presence in our fandom and always shipping SmoaknHawke bc they're *chef's kiss* 
> 
> If you enjoy and you're so inclined, please let me know by leaving a kudos and/or comment, they make my day!

Connor waits an hour after Felicity follows Mia.

He knows that the mother and daughter need some time to talk things through, what they’ve been through in the past days has completely shifted Mia’s worldview.

His own head is still reeling from his interactions with Mia today. The guilt is eating him up and to know that he has contributed to her pain is even worse. He can’t put a name on what it is he feels for Mia, truth be told he knows that neither of them really wants to, but he never wants to be a source of anguish for her.

It’s that thought which has him nodding to Zoe and heading round the corner to Mia’s makeshift apartment.

He ducks his head in first, to check that Felicity’s not still in there, but he only sees Mia. She’s sat atop the table, staring out the window as she nurses a glass of neat whiskey. Her eyes are red, showing that she’s clearly been crying, and whilst she’s clearly in deep thought, she appears less burdened than she was earlier. Her face isn’t fraught into so tight a frown and she sits a little taller, as if the weight on her shoulders has been somewhat lifted. The light from the moon outside bounces off of her hair, illuminating her in a magical sort of light and Connor feels that familiar pull in his stomach tugging him towards her.

“Y’know, I really should confiscate that,” He comments with a small smirk as he gestures towards the whiskey. Mia spins to look at him, her instincts coming into play as she rounds on the supposed intruder, but she relaxes when she sees it’s just him.

“I’d like to see you try,” She scoffs with a small smirk as she turns to face him, leaning forward to rest her elbows on her knees. She holds the glass between them with two fingers, careful and agile as always.

“Exactly why I won’t,” Connor replies with a similar smirk, taking her response as an indication that she’s not opposed to him being here.

He walks over, feeling her eyes on him as he does so, and settles a few feet away from her atop the table. They sit for a moment and Connor can feel the shift in the energy between them. Mia’s walls are up, almost as far as they were when he first met her. She’s scared and that guts Connor, because he never wants her to have to be scared with him.

“You doing okay seems like a slightly obsolete question,” He sighs after a long moment and Mia snorts, nodding her head. Connor stares at her, in the way he’s always been unable to resist doing. There’s just something about her that makes him want to know every piece of her.

“Kind of,” Mia shakes her head, drawing the glass up to her lips to take a long swig of the honey-colored liquid. Connor sighs, knowing she gets like this when she’s overwhelmed and well, overwhelming is an understatement for their lives the past few weeks.

“Where’s your mom?” He questions instead, looking around the room. He hides a smirk when he realizes that someone has tidied the area around where Mia sleeps. It reminds him of his own mom and the way he knows he’ll never be fully grown up in her eyes.

“With William. They’ve got a lot of catching up to do,” Mia explains with a small shrug, and Connor nods.

“Just like you and me,” He can’t resist adding and Mia finally turns to look at him, her expression melting into one of exhaustion. 

“Connor…” She starts but he holds up his hand, halting her speech to try and let him explain before she berates him.

“No, I… I’m not going to push, I know that you’re going through a lot right now and the stuff between us is probably right at the bottom of your list of concerns,” He continues, watching as Mia shakes her head, letting out a long sigh.

“It’s not like that. We’ve just got a lot of work to do to stop Galaxy One,” She explains with a small wince and Connor cannot stop the smile that spreads across his face at the confirmation that they’re staying to help the team. He would’ve stuck with her, whatever she wanted to do, but he knows that this is right and it’s their duty to help if they can.

He knows, though, that in order for them to be most effective working together, they need to air this out more. “That’s true but if there’s one thing all my dad’s stories taught me, it’s that you can’t be a good team if you don’t trust each other.”

“Mom used to say the same thing,” Mia comments with a small breath, her eyes drifting towards the door. He can practically hear her brain whirling. She’s a private person, and is very good at putting up walls, but Connor’s been around her long enough to know her tells, to know when she’s retreating into herself. The Mia behind the walls, the Mia he’s been lucky enough to begin to get to know, she’s scared and Connor wants to be there for her in any way that he can.

There’s a chasm between them though. One that he’s put there with all his lies. One that he needs to start to close.

“And you don’t trust me right now,” He states simply, staring into her bright green eyes with no barriers and pure honesty on his face.

“I don’t know you, Connor. The guy I thought I knew… he doesn’t exist,” Mia replies with a shrug of her shoulders and a scoff, looking away from him as her bottom lip quivers a little. Connor forces himself to ignore the way it tugs at his heart, to think with his head and not his heart, but he’s never been very good at that when it comes to Mia.

“But he does exist, Mia. Yes, I lied about why I initially found you and what I was doing in Star City but… I was telling the truth yesterday when I told you that all of it was real. The connection I feel with you, the want to be around you, that has nothing to do with my dad’s request. That is all you and that is all very real.”

The words spill out of him and he can feel himself leaning towards, trying to implore her to believe him with every fiber of his being. He knows that the lying is almost worse in Mia’s mind because of her history with her mom and he knows that his words won’t be enough but he prays they can be a start.

Mia swallows thickly and Connor feels a pull in his stomach as he watches her blink back tears. She shakes her head, her blonde curls moving with it and Connor finds himself momentarily distracted by the way the light dances through them.

“I… my whole world just got spun on its head,” She finally tells him and Connor feels his heart sink as he nods.

“I know.”

“And you were the one thing I thought I knew I could rely on.”

Her voice catches as she speaks, pointing at him with one of the fingers still wrapped around her glass, and Connor sighs, nodding his head. Her words shoot through him like a bullet but he takes a deep breath, forcing himself to remain a calm and reassuring presence.

“You can rely on me, Mia. I’m here, I’m not going anywhere. And I’m not here for my dad, I’m here for you,” He implores her, unable to resist reaching out and wrapping his hand around her arm. Her eyes immediately dart down to look at it, but Connor takes it as a good sign that she doesn’t pull away.

“How do I know those aren’t just empty promises? I’ve been told a lot of those in my life,” She states bitterly with clenched teeth but Connor can see the longing beneath her eyes, the hope she has for him. He allows that to fortify him, to give him the encouragement he needs.

“You can’t know. But I promise I will try and prove to you that they are not. Mia, I care about you, I care about you more than I think I even know,” His voice grows thick with emotion and intensity. He needs her to know this, that he’s there for her and he will be no matter what.

Mia takes a deep breath, her eyes searching his for a moment, before she places her hand over his. Connor gasps quietly at the contact and Mia’s eyes soften for a moment before she gently lifts his hand off her wrist and places it back next to him.

“I can’t think about all that right now,” She tells him but her voice is gentle, tender even.

Connor nods, having known that when he walked in here. He smiles at her softly, unable to resist lingering on the brown specks that litter her green eyes. “That’s okay, I just want you to know that I’m here for you, whatever you need.”

Mia nods, swallowing before she downs the rest of her glass. She lets out a long sigh, tilting her neck as she stretches her arms over her head.

“I’m exhausted,” She comments with a groan, and Connor nods, taking a deep breath of his own.

“You should get some rest. I’ll leave you to it,” He smiles softly, standing from the table and making his way towards the door.

“Connor?”

Mia’s voice is soft and he almost doesn’t hear it. When he turns around, she’s sat on the couch she calls a bed, biting her lip as she looks at him with a tentative expression. “Yeah?”

“I care about you too,” She tells him gently, her walls falling down for just a moment, and Connor cannot stop the bright smile that spreads across his face in tandem with his heart lightening.

“Goodnight, Mia,” He smiles, nodding at her with an affectionate look. She smiles too, before she sighs deeply.

“Goodnight.”

Connor smiles as he turns, feeling far lighter than he did on the way up as he makes his way back down to the makeshift bunker Dinah and Zoe have been using for the team.

Felicity is stood by one of the monitors, typing away, and William is next to her, the two of them clearly collaborating on something. Zoe is stood a few feet away, cleaning her weapon with her usual intense expression. Connor’s arrival turns all their attention and Felicity smiles at him gently. 

“Is she okay?” She questions immediately and Connor frowns, wondering how she knows he was with Mia.

“She’s getting some rest,” He explains and William and Zoe nod, both of them turning back to what they were doing. Felicity, however, takes a deep breath and nods her head, keeping her eyes on him. 

“Thank you for looking out for her,” She tells him with a grateful expression, and Connor smiles.

“She can look out for herself. She just needed a friend,” He shrugs, knowing that protection is the last thing Mia needs. She’s possible the best fighter he’s ever met but he thinks their connection has helped her in a more human way.

“A friend. Right,” Felicity smiles at him with a knowing look, and Connor shifts awkwardly, feeling a little odd that Mia’s mother has seen straight through him.

“I should go update Dad. Explain to him why I used Knightwatch to get into Galaxy One earlier,” He tells the vigilante, gesturing to the door.

“Alright, thank you again, Connor, and tell your dad I say hi,” Felicity smiles, that knowing look still in her eye, and Connor smiles with a nod of his head.

“I will do,” He reassures her and smiles at both William and Zoe before he turns and heads outside.

“Don’t even, those two have definitely gone to bang town,” William's voice sounds just before Connor gets fully outside and he freezes for a moment out of sight, embarrassed but intrigued to hear the rest of the conversation.

“He’s a good kid. I’m very glad Mia has him to lean on,” Felicity comments and Connor feels a burst of pride at her approval.

“She’ll come around. Well, I hope she will, I’d like a sister who doesn’t hate me,” William continues and Connor smirks. He knows that whilst Mia is hurt by the lies, she’s genuinely growing attached to William and she can see Felicity’s reasoning for keeping them apart. 

“She doesn’t hate you,” Zoe chimes in with a clearly amused tone to her voice and Connor smiles too.

“No. She doesn’t,” He whispers under his breath, feeling better than he did an hour ago as he completes his journey outside and reaches for his phone to call his dad.

And hopefully, once this is all over, he and Mia can have a proper discussion about the connection they share. For now, though, he’ll remain by her side and help her through whatever it is they’re going to face.


End file.
